GAZA CITY - Israeli forces have killed hundreds of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid outside US-backed food distribution points, the UN’s rights office said on Aug 1, as a special envoy from Washington was due to inspect the sites.

The

visit by President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff

also coincided with a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) that accused Israeli forces of presiding over “regular bloodbaths” around the US-backed centres, which have become magnets for criticism since their inception in late May.

The UN’s rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 people had been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27 – 105 of them in the past two days.

“Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” the office said, breaking down the death toll into 859 killed near the US-backed food sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys.

“These victims, the majority of whom appear to be young men and boys, are not just numbers,” the office said.

“Each person killed or injured had been desperately struggling for survival, not only for themselves, but also for their families and dependants.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency said

11 people were killed

by Israeli fire and air strikes on Aug 1, including two who were waiting near an aid distribution site run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

GHF largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system just as Israel was beginning to ease a more than two-month ai...